Twas The Night Before Christmas
by ThatGirlWhoSingsTooMuch
Summary: Leo did not expect to spend Christmas Eve with the cold praetor of Camp Jupiter, and Reyna certainly didn't expect to spend hers with the childish repair boy of the Argo II. And neither of them expected to enjoy each other's company. But sometimes, you find friends in the most unexpected places.


**Hi anyone who's reading this! Happy belated Christmas!** **Yeah, ****I meant to publish this _on_ Christmas, but I was sort of busy. Oh well.**

**So I just felt like writing some Leyna because it's one of my OTPs and I needed some cheering up after Mark of Athena (why Rick why?!). So, a Leyna Christmas story because I can.**

**Everything belongs to Rick Riordan. I don't own anything, unfortunately. I'd really like a Leo Valdez to keep around the house in case I ever need cheering up :D**

**Oh, and the pick-up lines are courtesy of my friend Georgia. She collects them. Yeah, she's weird.**

**SORRY IT SUCKS, GUYS. ENJOY.**

******o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.**

Leo looked around him as he walked along the path through Camp Jupiter. Snow was falling very softly, coating the trees and buildings like icing sugar. The clouds seemed to part around the moon, which was shining brightly against the dark sky. Even the Field of Mars looked peaceful. Camp Jupiter was quite a nice place already, but the winter made it breathtaking.

Soon enough he reached the barracks where all the Roman demigods slept. He was suddenly very glad that he got to stay in New Rome as a reward for helping to defeat the giants and not here. Though the living conditions didn't look too bad, New Rome was definitely nicer.

Leo soon found himself at the door to the praetor's quarters. The lights were on, so he assumed she was awake. He hesitantly knocked on the door, but there was no sound from inside except for a quiet whimpering, which was sort of worrying. He fidgeted nervously as he waited for a reply.

After about a minute, the door opened and Reyna stood there. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, and she had blue and purple pyjamas on. Leo was surprised, though he didn't know why. He'd just never seen her in anything but her toga, and he sort of assumed she just slept in it.

"Valdez," Reyna greeted politely.

"Uh, hi," Leo said nervously.

"Come in," Reyna said. She probably didn't mean for it to, but it sounded a lot like a command. Leo hurried inside and looked around. It was a small place, immaculately clean and not very welcoming, but at least it was warm. Even though it was Christmas Eve, there wasn't a single sign of any Christmas decorations around the house. He probably would have made a comment about the Grinch if Reyna wasn't so damn scary.

"Thank you for coming so quickly," Reyna continued. "And I'm sorry it's so late, but they were barking like mad and keeping me up."

Leo shrugged like it was no big deal. He had actually been pretty annoyed when Reyna had Iris-messaged him at eleven o'clock at night and asked for him to come fix her dogs, but he'd agreed to come anyway. Reyna was seriously scary, even more than Annabeth.

Reyna led him to a little kitchen that branched off from the main living area. It wasn't all that remarkable- just some benches with a sink, a fridge and a microwave oven. Of course, there were two metal greyhounds lying on the floor, twitching and making strange noises, but Leo had seen weirder things.

"They've been broken before, but most of the time it was little things I could fix myself. It's never been this bad," Reyna remarked. She even sounded a little worried, which was a refreshing change to the usual inexpressive tone she used.

Leo crouched down and lay a hand on each of the dogs. He searched through their mechanical bodies for the problem. It took a long time before he found it.

"Oh, I see. The actuators aren't rotating correctly." Reyna just raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Actuators are like the muscles of the robot," Leo explained. "They're what helps them to move."

"Can you fix them?" Reyna asked concernedly.

Leo scoffed. "Of course I can. I'm a master at this stuff. It shouldn't take too long, either."

Leo set to work, grabbing things out of his tool belt quickly and working as fast as he could. He wanted to go back to his warm bed as soon as possible.

As Reyna stared off into the distance, thinking, Leo got a good look at her. He'd never really noticed before, probably because when they'd first met he'd had a giant ship to sail and was a bit preoccupied with being possessed and all, but Reyna was really beautiful. She seemed about sixteen, but she was probably a lot younger than she looked. Her black hair was messy, but glossy and very soft-looking, and her dark eyes always looked cold and intimidating. Her mouth was set in a hard line, and Leo had a feeling that it didn't turn upwards too often. At that moment, Leo made it his personal mission to make this ever-serious girl genuinely smile.

Reyna got up and walked over to a cupboard and produced a bag of jellybeans. She held the bag out to him. "Do you want some?"

"Sure." Leo grabbed a handful out of the bag and continued work one-handed.

Reyna sat up on the bench and watched Leo work, eating jellybeans with her legs swinging happily.

Leo smiled. "I never knew you had a sweet tooth," he said.

"Well, my pegasus _is _nicknamed after peanut butter," she pointed out. "There were always lots of sweets at Circe's island. I retained my love for them even after I... err, left." She shook the bag and frowned. "There's none left. I'll have to get some tomorrow."

"It's Christmas tomorrow," Leo pointed out. "The shops will be closed."

Reyna swore. Leo raised an eyebrow. "Can't you live through a day without your precious jellybeans?"

Reyna glared at him and Leo turned back to his work with a shiver. She had a pretty terrifying glare.

They were quiet for a long time. Leo wished he was better with people. He never really knew what to say. "So..." He searched for something to talk about. Usually it wasn't that hard, but he was finding it difficult at the moment when he was in the company of someone so serious. "Uhh... did you know that your name means queen in Spanish?"

"Actually, yes I did. I'm from Puerto Rico."

"So you speak fluent Spanish?" Leo asked, surprised. He'd never met someone other than his family who could before.

Reyna nodded, but her eyes told Leo that was the end of that conversation.

There was another long period of silence. Leo was really starting to hate these. After a long while though, he found something to say. "So why did you call me instead of the Vulcan kids?" Leo asked.

Reyna was quiet for a while, then she said something that surprised Leo. "You know, your father gave me Aurum and Argentum."

Leo looked up at her in surprise. "Really? When?"

"After Hylla and I escaped from Blackbeard's pirates, we were on the run. We had no training to speak of and no weapons- basically no way of protecting ourselves." She looked off into the distance, probably remembering. "One morning we woke up, and next to us were two daggers, and Aurum and Argentum. Aurum's collar had a note stuck to it. It said 'Good luck' and was signed with a 'H'.

"We still didn't know who they were from- we assumed it was a god or goddess, but there are quite a few with names starting with 'H'. But one day in a mythology class at Camp Jupiter, I learned that Hephaestus- not Vulcan- gave King Alcinous a gold and a silver dog as bodyguards. I prayed to him every night ever since."

Leo cocked his head to the side. "That's a very interesting story and all, but I still don't get why you sent for me."

Reyna sighed. "I don't know. I suppose, being a son of Hephaestus, I trust you more than the other Romans do. Most of them still haven't forgiven you for firing on Camp Jupiter. Plus, you're the best of the best. I want my dogs in top condition."

Aurum and Argentum nudged Leo gently and panted happily while he worked. "Well, it explains why they like me so much."

Reyna raised her eyebrows. "You're lucky. They don't usually show affection to anyone but me."

Leo smiled to himself and kept working. He was soon finished, but he kept tinkering on the dogs. He suddenly really felt like staying exactly where he was, for some strange reason.

"So... how are things going? You don't look like you've had much sleep," Leo said conversationally.

Reyna rubbed her eyes tiredly. "No, I haven't really. Even with the war over, being praetor is stressful. It was never an easy job. And with Christmas tomorrow, everyone's been lax with their duties, so I've had to do most of the preparations." She sighed wearily. "It's impossible to keep everyone happy, and no matter how much work I do, it never seems like enough."

Leo felt a rush of sympathy for Reyna. He understood what it was like to feel like you couldn't live up to everyone's expectation.

"Don't worry," he said. "Nobody's perfect. Take me for example. Though at first glance I may seem flawless in every single way, I... well, I sort of have a tendency to fall in love with girls completely out of my league."

Reyna's eyes sparkled in amusement and her mouth twitched, but she didn't quite smile. "And I'm assuming none of the objects of your affection reciprocate your feelings, correct?"

"Uhh... if you mean they don't like me back, then you'd be right." He sighed dramatically. "I think they're put off by my jokes. Some people just have no sense of humour."

"Your jokes? You mean the really bad witticisms that are worthy of the title 'dad joke'?" Reyna's face cracked, and she let out a tiny smile. "I find them sort of endearing."

_Mission accomplished! _Leo thought, deciding to ignore the last comment so he didn't get his hopes up. _Earlier than I would've guessed as well._

"What are you grinning about over there?" Reyna asked suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," he replied airily, trying to suppress said grin. "It's just I've never seen you smile properly before."

Reyna seemed to think about that, then shrugged. "Most of the time I don't see a reason to."

"Well, you should do it more often. It makes you look pretty."

Reyna raised an eyebrow, but Leo caught the pleasantly surprised look on her face. "Are you _flirting _with me, Valdez?"

Leo scoffed. "Of course not. What on earth would make you think that?" He paused. "Wait, don't people ever compliment you like that?" He found that sort of unbelievable, really, for someone so gorgeous.

"No, not really. Dakota does sometimes, but he flirts with everyone, and it's usually when he's had too much Kool-Aid." She paused. "I think boys are scared of me. They're probably put off by the fact that I'm an all-powerful praetor and could severely punish them for one minor slip-up in the relationship department." To Leo's surprise, she didn't sound bitter at all- she just stated it as if it were a fact.

"Well, severe punishment's not going to stop me. I'd suffer through anything at all to be with you!" he said with a dramatic flourish of his arms.

Reyna snorted. "That was pathetic. You're going to have to do better if you want to impress me." She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side, eyes sparkling mischievously.

Leo grinned. "Challenge accepted." He put on his best sexy face. "Baby, you're so sweet you put Hershey's out of business."

Reyna tried to suppress a smile, and Leo continued. "Your legs must be tired, because you've been running through my mind all day." Reyna shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Oh! If I had a star for every time you made me smile, I'd hold the galaxy in the palm of my hand."

"That one's actually kind of sweet."

"What about this? If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone more beautiful than you, I'd be broke."

"Wow. That was very corny."

Leo winked. "Baby, I _invented _corny. You know, if sexy was a crime, you'd be guilty as charged."

They continued to talk for hours about anything and everything, their conversation rife with cheesy pick up lines and corny jokes. Reyna was getting closer and closer to laughing as the night wore on.

"How many pick up lines can a person remember?" Reyna asked.

"Oh, I have a limitless supply," Leo told her. He grinned his most evil grin. "But what about you? Have you got any?"

Reyna bit her lip, thinking. "Well..."

"Yeah?"

"There was this one that Dakota said once, and I thought it was pretty funny, but it's not really a pick up line..."

"And...?"

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Did it hurt?"

Leo knew this one, and was a little disappointed. "Did what hurt?"

"When you fell from heaven," Reyna said.

"That's a pretty-"

"Because it looks like you fell on your face," she finished completely seriously.

Leo snorted. He tried to hold it in, but soon it bubbled over until he was doubled over with laughter. He couldn't help it. The joke itself wasn't even that funny, but Leo thought that maybe it was the fact that Reyna had made a joke with a complete poker face that set him laughing.

Then, miraculously, Reyna started laughing too. She chuckled and giggled, shoulders shaking and holding her stomach with tears in her eyes. Leo thought she had the prettiest laugh he'd ever heard.

"Has- has anyone ever told you- that you have really- infectious laughter?" Reyna asked between breaths.

"Only- about a million times," Leo answered, then started laughing again. Hey, he was exhausted. Anything and everything seemed funny then.

Finally, they both calmed down, and Reyna wiped her eyes, back to her usual serious self. "You know, I don't think I've laughed this much for years."

"I didn't think I'd ever actually live to see the day you laughed," Leo joked.

Reyna just rolled her eyes and looked down at her watch. "It's three in the morning. We've been talking for a while."

"And I enjoyed every minute of it," Leo said. He had a sudden revelation. "Wait, that means it's Christmas." He grinned and bowed deeply. "Merry Christmas, _mi reina_."

Reyna snorted and stood up, walking to the front door. She held it open for him. "Go to bed, Valdez."

Leo laughed as he walked outside into the cold night. He turned around and winked. "And good night to you too, Your Highness."

Reyna treated him with one last smile before closing the door. They'd gotten on better than anyone would have expected for two people on the opposite sides of the personality spectrum.

Leo stared at the spot where Reyna had just been. As he walked back to New Rome, he felt a bit lonely. Leo realised that he was still smiling like a madman, and at that moment, he knew that his heart was completely and utterly done for.

* * *

Reyna woke early the next morning, yawning widely. She got out of bed and walked to the kitchen to make herself a quick coffee before getting ready, but as she was doing so, she noticed that the window in the living room was open. She knew for sure that she hadn't left it open last night, so that meant someone had broken in. How they'd gotten past Aurum and Argentum, she didn't know.

Reyna hurried over to the window, drawing her knife but there was no sign of any intruder except for the open window. Then she noticed something glimmer out of the corner of her eye.

Reyna walked over to the thing that was glimmering. It was a metal, silver Christmas tree that came up to her knee, with tiny gold baubles stuck to it. Attached to the tree was a note. On it, in an almost unreadable scrawl was the message 'Feliz Navidad, Your Highness'. There wasn't a signature, but Reyna knew immediately who it was from.

She let a small smile cross her face. Valdez wasn't so bad after all. He was kind, and sweet, and funny, and even sort of cute.

Reyna shook her head. Cute? What was she, some sort of lovesick teenage girl squealing over her crush? No, Reyna didn't squeal, and nor did she like Leo Valdez.

Then she noticed the massive bag of jellybeans behind the tree. Reyna picked it up, a huge grin spreading across her face.

Okay, maybe she liked him a little bit.

**o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.**

**SO IT'S DONE. FINALLY.**

**I hope you guys liked it, and sorry if there are any mistakes.**

**So yeah. I've got nothing else to say, really. Reviews would be nice.**

**Signing off!**

**EDIT:**

**Okay, so, you guys are amazing. Thank you thank you thank you so much for the nice reviews and all that, especially since this isn't a super creative story in any way, shape or form. You've all been really sweet and not horrible or demanding or anything which I was sort of expecting, and I'm really grateful for that. **

**Also, thanks to the people who advertised this on Tumblr (only two but still that's mind blowing), especially MaydayParade8123 because god dammit, I basically worship her writings and it was really nice to get such a kind review from her and if you enjoyed this story, you absolutely must check out her stuff because it is 30936870985476432897629347% better than this piece of junk.**

**And sorry if anyone expecting a new chapter or something, but I think this is staying a one shot because what else is there to do with it really?**

**Thanks again everyone!**


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